


In from the cold

by myotishia



Series: Thin ice [4]
Category: Torchwood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-27 17:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20764460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myotishia/pseuds/myotishia
Summary: An early morning call begins a chaotic day for Gwen.





	1. Hot and cold

**Author's Note:**

> New reader? Start right [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18551278)

The oppressive heat had made living with a baby so much more difficult. Anwen had been fussy all night and Gwen was about ready to go and sleep in the car if it weren’t for the fact that the car would be even warmer. The baby had finally settled as the sun rose and Gwen tanked an early coffee. It tasted cheap but it was caffeine and that’s all that mattered. She was pulling on her coat as he phone buzzed. In a panic she grabbed it, hoping the sound hadn’t disturbed the baby, hitting the answer button and holding it between her ear and shoulder.

“I’m just leaving.” She said quietly, the fatigue clear in her voice.

Ianto’s voice came through the speaker. “We have a problem. You need to get Rhys and Anwen to evacuate.”

“What? Why?” 

“Look outside.”

In confusion she opened the curtains to see a deep, blood red sky. “A solar eclipse?”

“Not a natural one. The temperature is plummeting. It’s been so hot no ones noticed yet but there’s going to be chaos on the roads as soon as the evacuation announcement gets around.”

“How big is this going to be?”

“It’s covering the majority of Wales. I’ve just managed to get my family to leave and I’ve informed Andy so he can be at the front of the evacuation process.”

“Right… I… Ok. Right, I’ll be at work soon.”

“Take all the time you need.”

She hung up the call and dropped her phone on the sofa before running to the bedroom where Rhys was dozing.

“Rhys. Rhys! Wake up!” She whisper shouted. 

He looked up in confusion. “Wha-”

“You need to take Anwen and evacuate.”

“What?” He sat up and rubbed his tired eyes. “Evacuate? What’s going on?”

“Something’s blocking the sun and it’s going to start freezing soon. You both need to get to safety.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“Rhys, for christs sake, this isn’t up for discussion!”

“I am not leaving you! Where would we even go?”

“I don’t know!” She snapped, tears in her eyes. “I just… Need you both safe.”

He climbed out of bed and pulled her into his arms. “We’re safest with you. I don’t give a shit what anyone else says, we’re staying.”

“I…” She sniffed and took a deep breath. “Let me call in.”

Jack could already feel a sharp chill setting into the air as he got the call from Gwen.

“Are you on your way?”

“Jack… I can’t just leave Anwen and Rhys.”

“Ok, evacuate with them.”

“What? No, I’m not running away.”

“Are you telling me you’re bringing them to the hub?”

“Yes.”

“Fine.”

“Just listen I… Wait… Did you say fine?”

“I did. Your family should be with you.”

“I thought you’d argue.”

“There’s a baby involved, that changes everything. Bring what you can, we don’t know how long this will take.”

“Thank you. I’ll be with you soon.” 

As the call ended he hoped she believed him. If it weren’t for the fact that this was big enough that it could potentially end all of their lives he would have argued, but she shouldn’t be away from the people she loves if the worst were to happen. He’d heard stories of beings that would commit genocide just to sell off the planet and this was how it started. Begin killing off the plant life, then the animals follow and finally when the temperature gets low enough the sea life. He had no idea how he was going to combat this but he couldn’t let the team know that. They needed that confidence in him even if he didn’t have it in himself. 

“Jack?” Ianto stood, looking to all the world like nothing was wrong. “Tosh and Owen will be here in a few minutes. Elise is helping their next door neighbour then she’ll be with us. You have a conference call in twenty minutes and I’m a little concerned about the amount of food we have stored, in that we have very little.”

“Thanks. I’ll be right down. When Elise gets here you both can go and get enough food to tide us over.”

“Right.”

“And Ianto?”

“Yes sir?”

Jack turned and took something from his pocket. “I’ve been meaning to give you this.” He smiled, handing over the little blue box. Iantos name written in silver cursive over the top. The young man opened it carefully and smiled at the silver pocket watch inside, an intricately designed dragon carved into the surface. It was beautiful even in the low, crimson, light.

“This is… Thank you.” He said, trying to find the right words. “What’s the occasion?”

Jack chuckled softly. “End of the world? I know it happens once a month but I think it still counts.”

Tosh couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Between the moment the object blocked the sun and now the average temperature had dropped from 30°C to only 19°C. Theoretically the temperature drop should slow to around 6°C every 24 hours if blocking was all the object did but that still only left three days before they would be in minus numbers. She looked to Owen who was chewing on the end of a pen.

“Three days.” He murmured to himself.

“Three days?”

“Until this becomes an ecological disaster. It’s the middle of summer, nothing’s prepared for the cold, and no matter the time of year nothing is made to cope with constant darkness. That is if whatever’s up there just stays as it is.”

Tosh looked back at her screen. She hadn’t been able to get hold of any communication signal and it was difficult to even identify the ship. She was going to be at it for a while. 

Gwen ran in, dropping her bag on her desk before turning back to help Rhys with the second bag and Anwens car seat. The baby fast asleep and loving the fact that the hub was cool.

“Where’s Jack?” She asked, looking up to his office.

Tosh waved quickly. “Not sure but he should be back any minute. He’s got a conference call to get to. Ianto went to get him.”

“And Elise?”

“Helping our next door neighbour get ready for her grandson to pick her up. She has three cats and she refused to leave them.”

“Will she be ok? It’s already getting a little crazy out there. We nearly ran over a bloke screaming about the rapture on the way here.”

“In a way I can’t blame him. It isn’t as if we can cover this up.”

“What is this exactly? Ianto only gave me a general outline.”

“It’s a ship. It’s blocking the sun to lower the temperature and destroy organic life in its shadow. At least that’s what we think. We’ve had no contact with it so far.”

The conference call wasn’t going well. The military was insisting they could destroy the ship, no matter how many times Jack told them that these ships were more than strong enough to repel conventional weapons and any aggressive action would just provoke them. UNIT agreed that conventional weaponry would be next to useless but wanted time to develop a weapon powerful enough to destroy the ship as the ship would not answer any kind of communication, ruling out any diplomatic approach. The prime minister was more concerned with where all the people being evacuated would go. Jack knew where this was going ad nothing he could say would stop it so he stayed silent as the other three argued. It didn’t take long for his silence to be noticed. 

The prime ministers smug, pudgy, face stared into the screen. “Nothing to say Captain Harkness?”

“There’s nothing I could say. You’ve already made your decision.” 

“Well then… Blow the damn thing out of the sky!” 

The call ended and Jack stood, so far keeping his composure. It slipped, just for a moment, just a flair of rage. He slammed his fist into the table, cracking the polished surface. Blood ran from his knuckles before he pulled himself back together. He could be angry later. For now he had to work out what to do once the ship reacted. It was too late to stop it from happening. 

Elise looked up into the sky as she waved to her neighbour, feeling like something was about to go down. The sky lit up for only a moment and then darkness returned, closely followed by a boom that shook the buildings all around. Those still waking up and evacuating began to scream and panic. Way to make everything worse. Of course the military would be stupid enough to just outright attack the damn thing. She decided if the ship fired on the city now and she died she’d be coming back to haunt the specific people who made that call and she’d be bringing friends. A chill followed, punctuated by house and car alarms ringing for miles. No, it was more than a chill. The temperature was dropping, fast. She ran back into the house and picked up the digital thermometer she sometimes used when working with certain metals. The night time temperature was meant to be 25°C but now it was only 10°C without windchill. She darted upstairs and grabbed their winter coats from the bottom of the wardrobe along with a few extra sets of clothing for Tosh and Owen. They would be staying at the hub for a while she was sure. After locking up, she tossed the case in Toshikos car. 

The sky had returned to the deep red it had been before the explosion.

Anwen jolted awake, the explosion loud enough to even reach the centre of the hub. Rhys picked her up and rocked her to get her to go back to sleep.

“What was that?” He asked, clearly worried.

Jack stepped forward. “That was the military being morons. Tosh, what’s the ship doing?”

“I’m getting an energy signature. It’s activated something… One second…” To anyone outside of Tosh her screen was a jumble of numbers and abstract shapes but to her it all made perfect sense. The ship was actively cooling the land in its shadow but it was using an incredible amount of energy to do so. At least she could use it to lock on to the ship and the way it worked. “It’s actively lowering the ambient temperature but it’s having to work hard to do so. We could try and overload it by provoking it but I don’t know how long it will take or what kind of condition we’d be in before it faltered.”

“Any chance of disabling it remotely?”

“It’s not a system I recognise but I’m trying.”

“Where is your other third?”

Owen turned, knowing Jacks mood was understandably bad and the fact that Elise had stayed back would not improve that at all. “On her way. It’s chaos out there. We’ve lost another 15° and the temperature’s still dropping.”

“I’m going to see if we have anything that could even touch that ship. Tell Elise to go with Ianto to get supplies as soon as she gets here.” He said, walking towards the armoury. 

Rhys looked to Gwen. “I can help. I can’t do anything with this alien stuff but I can lift boxes.”

“Actually I wouldn’t mind the help.” Said Ianto, placing a tool box on Elises desk. “The way the temperature’s dropping we won’t exactly have time to browse so the extra hands would be very helpful.”

Rhys smiled. He wanted to be useful and he knew Anwen would be just fine with her mother. Gwen happily took the baby, who had moved to making little cooing noises and nudging whatever was in front of her with her head. “What’s the tool box for?”

“The boiler.” Ianto felt three pairs of eyes staring into him.

“Why?”

“It’s old. It’s working for now but if the temperature hits freezing it might have trouble.”

Owen glared. “I thought it was being replaced.”

“It is… Next week. It’s not a household unit so it was more difficult to source and I thought the middle of a heat wave could be the best time to have everything shut off for the work.” His logic had been impeccable but the timing had just been incredibly unlucky.

“What are we doing if it goes down?”

“I have the heater we found in the survival kit on standby just in case. That should last long enough for any repairs.” He said before wandering towards the garage, Rhys in tow. 

Elise took a deep breath to calm herself from the chaos outside after parking up. A knock on the window made her jump before she realised who it was. Stepping out she rolled her shoulders. “So how much trouble am I in?”

“None yet. We’ve got to go supplies shopping.” Said Ianto, seemingly unfazed by the whole situation. 

“And by shopping you mean…”

“We’ll leave the money.”

“The roads are crazy out there. It’s not going to be an easy trip.” She warned.

Jack returned from the armoury, looking neutral. Impossible to read. It was intentional, obviously, but it was slightly unnerving. He sat at his desk and logged on to access part of the system that didn’t see traffic anymore. He wasn’t completely certain it would still be accessible as the servers had most likely been destroyed but the off site back ups might still be intact. Torchwood one was the antithesis of everything Jack had worked for but it had one thing he hoped could still be used. A weapon he’d been completely against when it had first been made but the only thing he could think of that would put a dent in the ship. 

“Jack, we’re finally getting communication from the ship.” Tosh called.

“Send it through.”

An image flickered onto his screen. The signal was shaky but there. The figure on the screen glared, green eyes burning with anger.

“You fire on me then want to talk?” It asked, speaking English with a slight Welsh lilt.

Jack realised what this being was, the creature that had been contained inside ravenwood house. “Someone else fired on you. I want to know why you’re doing this.”

“I’m destroying that place I was caged inside for so long along with every pathetic creature on the planet I called my cage.”

“That wasn’t Earth technology. Humanity did nothing to you!”

“Nothing? I could have easily been freed when that human started tampering with my cell! Instead he locked me in that infinitely looping nightmare!”

“He didn’t know what he was doing.”

“I don’t care. I want all of it gone!” The figure roared. “What now, human?” He said human as if it was a dirty word, “Want to beg for your life?”

“No. I’m just going to warn you that your actions are going to get you killed.”

A bitter laugh rang through the speakers. “After the last little display?”

“That was just a warning.”

“What’s your name, human?”

“Captain Jack Harkness.”

“Well, Jack, here’s the thing. I’ve got nothing to lose. My crew is long dead. I’m wanted across the universe and the only reason I haven’t been captured is because no one cares about this backwards little planet in the middle of a barely usable star system. Either this planet dies or I do. So, your move.” The creature grinned and the feed cut.

A silence fell across the hub. They all knew that there was no way to talk this guy round and he had the upper hand. He had for as long as he needed to work his way over the Earth, killing off every living thing if they didn’t stop him. 

“Tosh, please tell me that call gave you access to his ship.” Jack asked, not looking her in the eye.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry. The ships computer is compartmentalised to prevent outside tampering.” 

He sighed. “Ok. Plan B it is.”

Ianto shuddered at the biting cold wind that cut under the collar of his coat as he picked the store’s office door lock. The front shutters had two locks but the office had one and was out of sight so that was the easiest way in. The door swung open and they stepped inside, appreciating the residual warmth held inside from the night before. Elise pulled open the security box and plugged in the disarming device Ianto had given her. It would shut off the burglar alarm and cameras temporarily but not alert the system of the change. 

“Right, so what’s the plan?” Asked Elise.

Ianto raised an eyebrow at her. “I was thinking anything frozen last, obviously, but remember the freezer is small. Other than that, anything that’s going to keep. The hub should be safe for some time as long as you can keep the boiler running. Why are you asking me?”

“Technically you have seniority over me.”

He chuckled. “When?”

“You’re an employee, I’m an asset. You’re higher up than me.”

“I’ll have to ask Jack about that.”

Rhys looked between the two, realising quickly that they were just chatting. Even when he’d seen Ianto around Gwen he still had a slight tenseness to him but around Elise the man seemed completely at ease. Maybe it was the difference in the situation. After all Ianto had been in a hell of a state when he’d appeared at their door. 

“How are you so calm when we’re technically breaking and entering?” He asked, looking over his shoulder as if someone could walk in at any moment.

Ianto turned, “everyone’s evacuating, including the police. Plus, as long as we’re working, the police let us do what we need to do.”

“And we’re going to leave enough money to cover everything. We don’t need to but I always end up feeling bad.” Elise smiled. 

“I keep telling you their insurance will cover it.”

“Doesn’t mean they won’t screw over their staff. Anyway, it’s not the legality of this we need to worry about.”

Rhys followed them through the warehouse and onto the shop floor itself. “Then what is?”

“Looters. They’re more likely to be violent and I don’t want to fight today.”

“Already?”

“Oh yea. On the way to work I saw a few windows already smashed in.”

“Everyone’s evacuating because the bloody sun’s blocked and people are out trying to nick new TV. What’s wrong with people.”

“Humanity in general is pretty giving, but every so often you get some arsehole who just can’t get enough. I call those people politicians.” She smirked, grabbing a basket. “Right, bread won’t last but its composite parts can and I can bake bread so that’s probably a better option. I think the oven’s big enough.”

Ianto took his own basket. “I think so. Jack never gets around to using it so I can only hope it’s in full working order.” 

“What does he eat?”

“Too much take away food, or whatever I cook. That or he goes out.”

“Does he ever go home? Does he have one?” Rhys asked. “Gwen always talked like he never left work.”

“When he sleeps, he sleeps in the hub.”

“When?” 

Elise chuckled lightly. “If it’s something to do with Jack and sounds a bit odd just roll with it. Life’s easier that way.”

“I just can’t work out that guy.”

“No one can. Except maybe Ianto.”

Ianto shook his head. “Not as much as you’d think. Anyway, we need to get back before we have to de-ice the windscreen.” 

Jack watched over Toshiko’s shoulder as she attempted to access the old Torchwood one system. Some of the system was still intact and that was the problem. She’d get so far and then find that the gateway she’d have to use no longer existed and she had to find a different route. One part of the weapon was still online but all five parts had to be activated at the same time for it to work and that was becoming more and more complex by the second. It was beyond frustrating. 

“Not that I’m doubting you but do you think we might have to activate this manually?” He asked.

“It’s possible but getting to the respective parts after so long could be impossible. We don’t know what kind of condition any of it’s in or if half of it’s still working at all.”

“Do your best for now. I can make a few calls, see if the hardware’s still intact.”

“I don’t think I’ll have this done before Ianto gets back.”

“It’s ok. I’ll work something out.” He reassured her.

Owen turned to look at them both. “Hate to make a bad situation worse but we’ve just started getting alerts for a time leak. Looks like the sudden temperature change caused something to break.”

“Where?”

He zoomed into a map showing a slow expansion of the irradiated area. 

“At least there’s nobody there right now. As soon as we clear this blackout we’ll look into it.”

“I was wondering, you know your vortex manipulator.”

“Yea?”

“Well it doesn’t just travel through time, right? Why don’t you use it to teleport up to the ship and take it down from the inside?”

“Because it’s damaged. There are certain things it can’t do anymore.”

“What about the one Elise has?”

Jack paused, having never thought about the one he’d given to Elise. He never wanted her to use it for its original purpose so he never even considered telling her about it. A smile grew on his face. 

“Why didn’t I think about that before?!” 

“Because yours is broken.”

“Right, Tosh, keep looking for ways to access the cannons just in case this doesn’t pan out.”

“So what do we do if they’ve fixed all this by the time we get back?” Asked Elise, using her retail skills to get everything bagged.

Ianto shrugged, leaning on the barrier between the self service machines and the normal checkouts. “Jack’ll eat properly for a few weeks? Or we can really go all out tonight.” 

“I miss cooking. I really should do it more often.”

“Why don’t you?”

“I’m lazy.” She grinned. “Plus Owen gets possessive over the kitchen.”

Rhys, who was gathering the bags that Elise had packed, stopped. “So, I don’t mean to get into your business or anything…”

“Go on.”

“Who exactly are you going out with?”

“Gwen didn’t fully clarify did she.”

“She doesn’t really talk about it much.”

“That’s fair. I’m going out with both Tosh and Owen.”

“And they’re ok with it?”

“I hope so, otherwise them two sleeping together would be a bit odd. And Saturday nights would be really awkward.” 

It was obvious Rhys had no idea what to say, not out of disapproval but possibly on the most base level considering Owen the luckiest man in the world. For some reason, that even he couldn’t fathom, his mind only gave him this. “Why would Saturday nights be awkward?” 

“I’ll leave that to your imagination.” 

“No… I mean.. I… Bloody hell.” He stammered before realising there was no recovery from that one. 

She laughed and picked up the last bag. “Don’t worry about it. I sometimes forget not everyone is as open to talking about that kind of thing as me.”

“Except Jack.” Corrected Ianto.

“True. He’s way more open than me. Or anyone for that matter.”

“Speaking of Jack, we should get back before his nervous grump mixes with his hungry grump.”

Rhys looked surprised. “Nervous? He didn’t seem nervous to me.”

“He thinks he hides it from everyone but if you’re around him long enough you can tell.”

“Is that why he flirts with everyone?”

“No, that’s just how he talks.”

“Right… If we’re all done then we need to go back out into the cold.”

“I was putting it off.”

Elise took a couple of the bags. “Same. The SUV should still be warm though. Warmer than in here.”

Gwen was glad Jacks mood had raised and even Anwen could tell. She’d stopped fussing completely though that may have been because she was milk drunk and the lights of the hub were quite entertaining to a baby. Between that and half watching her mother monitor the evacuation process she was ready for her midday nap. 

“Come on sweetheart, you’ve not been sleeping with the heat so you must be exhausted.” Gwen cooed. She noticed that Anwen was watching something more than the lights. It was as if she was following something with her eyes. Myfanwy was roosting due to the temperature so it wasn’t her flying circles. Gwen looked up and tried to see if anything was there but she couldn’t make anything out that was moving. Owen noticed her odd behaviour and joined her looking for anything out of the ordinary. 

“What are you looking at?” He asked in confusion.

“Hmm? … Oh, Anwen was watching something but I can’t see what.”

“Maybe it’s a ghost.” He teased. “It won’t be anything that far up. She’s too young to see clearly that far.”

“Come over here and take a look for yourself smart arse.”

He rolled his eyes, thinking that she was having a modified version of the usual mum worries and looked down at the infant who was blowing spit bubbles as babies are want to do. He opened his mouth to say there was nothing going on but the little one was definitely watching something. 

“Ok, that’s a bit weird. Hold on.” He held his hand above Anwen to block her vision but let him see her eyes. She stopped following whatever it was she’d been watching and turned her attention to his hand, huffing as she kicked her legs with the coordination of a drunk jellyfish. Moving his hand away she looked up but whatever it was had gone, or she couldn’t find it anymore. “Looks like it’s gone.”

“Is there something wrong?”

“It’s the hub. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had completely benign visual phenomena.”

“As long as that’s all.”

“Don’t let the mum paranoia get to you or you’ll never sleep again.”

Hearing the three who had just gotten back from the supplies run and were trying to warm up from the short walk back to the SUV. Everything was starting to ice over. 

Owen stepped back. “Eli. Jack wants to see you asap.”

“Let me put these down and I’ll be there. And if it’s about being late you can blame Tibbles the frigging wonder cat. Little bugger wouldn’t come out from behind the fridge.” She said, rushing towards the kitchen as not to leave her boss waiting for too long. 


	2. Through space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a plan in mind it's time to face the ship head on.

As Elise entered Jacks office she’d braced herself to have to argue the point about why she was late but he seemed to be in high spirits. 

“There you are. We have an idea of how to get on the ship.”

“Ok? How?” 

He pointed to her wrist, or more the vortex manipulator attached to it. 

“It can do that?”

“Yea.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because it’s addictive and bad for you.”

“Ok, fair. I thought Tosh had to register this one to me and I can’t exactly go that far.”

“You don’t have to. You can set me as a guest user. It’ll give me access for 24 hours.”

“Ok, show me.” She smiled, holding up her wrist. 

From outside the office, it looked like the two were kids playing with a new toy, enthusiastically pointing and gesturing. The small bursts of blue light didn’t help the comparison. 

Jack beamed. “All set. Easy.” 

“Right, so just make sure you bring it back before I go to sleep tonight.”

“I promise.”

She felt a wave of anxiety wash over her as she unstrapped the wristband, hesitating to remove it.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sorry, I just haven’t been away from it for more than a few seconds since I got it.” She laughed drily. 

Jack took her hand, gently grazing a thumb over the scars etched into the back of it. “It’s ok. Tell you what, you lend me yours and I’ll lend you mine.”

She bit the inside of her cheek nervously.

“Elise.” He lifted her chin to look her in the eye. “You’ll be ok. This will protect you a little, just enough until I get back.” He took off his wrist comp and traded it for hers. “I’ve never let anyone else wear it so…”

“I’ll take care of it.” She smiled weakly.

“And I’ll take care of this one. We’ll be right back.” He swept out of the office. “Who wants a quick trip to space?” He switched back to his beaming smile.

“Well, I’m not any use sitting here looking at this screen so I’m up for shooting this nutcase in the head.” Owen said, hiding the fact that he really did want to go to space at least once in his life.

“Always good to have a willing volunteer. We leave in ten.”

It had been a long time since Jack had used the vortex manipulator for its intended purpose. He settled for using its secondary abilities to make his life easier but setting it up for the trip felt natural. Like riding a bike the knowledge was more muscle memory than an active attempt. 

“Try not to fall over.” He said, looking at Owen.

“Try not to get us killed.” 

He laughed and activated the device, the world lighting up with a familiar golden light, before it faded to show the grey walls of the engine room of the ship. It was a large, ex military, vessel. All of the old insignia's had been sanded away or painted over with the pirates logo but even that paint had started to crack and peel. 

“Can’t we shut it down from here?” Asked Owen, examining the ships main systems. 

“Only if you want it crashing into the Earth.” 

“Where’s our guy then?”

“If this is anything like other ships I’ve been on, this way.” He walked down a hallway with lights flickering overhead. “He’s burning this ship out. At this rate it could explode in a couple of days, max. It’s not in good enough shape to survive the work.”

“I hope we don’t have to find out just how unstable this place is. Are these walls bulletproof?”

“I have no idea so try not to miss when we find him.”

Only their footsteps could be heard as they walked towards the control room, past a huge viewing window. Owen stopped and looked down at the Earth. It looked so small and almost unfathomable that it held so much life. 

Jack looked over his shoulder. “Breathtaking, isn’t it?”

“It’s different than looking at it on a screen. It’s more…”

“Real.”

“Every planet has its own feeling to it. I always liked Earth. No other place quite like it.”

“How about now you’re stuck there?”

“Earth’s still my favourite. Even now. It has all my favourite people.”

A slow clapping pulled them from their viewing. The green eyed being stood, looming over the two, with a manic grin on its face showing its thin silver teeth. Jack and Owen drew their guns and fired, not waiting for a drawn out speech. 

The creature fell, laughing. “I still win.”

The lights flickered and the sound of the engines cut. 

Ianto crouched next to Elise who was flat out on the sofa, her arm covering her eyes.

“Are you ok? We’re about to have lunch.” 

She shook her head. “I feel like I have the hangover from hell. Was the hub always this loud?”

“Loud?”

“The high pitched buzz. And the gold lights.”

He stood and waved over to Tosh to get her to join him. “She’s seeing lights.”

Tosh placed a hand on Elises forehead, looking more than a little concerned. “Sweet heart? Look at me for a moment.”

Elise moved her arm and squinted as if the light was physically painful. 

“Are you cold?”

“A little. Why?”

“You’ve got a mild fever.”

“But why?”

She paused for a moment. “Well, you’ve changed since you’ve been wearing your vortex manipulator. Maybe we didn’t notice the effects because it was protecting you.”

“Changed?”

“With what happened with UNIT and being so much more affected by the rift.”

“I thought you thought that was an illusion.”

“The visual effect yes, but I know it’s still inside you. It’s hard not to notice the difference in your cellular structure. Martha thought we didn’t know.”

A smile spread across Elises face followed by tears.

“No, no, no. Don’t cry.”

“Sorry.” She laughed. “I just feel so dumb. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

“We thought you knew.”

“You never said anything… Can I cover my eyes again? The light really hurts.”

“Of course, just don’t go to sleep.”

“I couldn’t if I wanted to.”

“I’m going to get something to eat and I’ll be right back.”

Ianto smiled sympathetically at them. “Are you sure you don’t want anything?”

“Water please.” Elise croaked out.

Jack and Owen skittered into the control room to see the panel smashed, sparks crackling from its surface. That’s what the pirate had meant. Even if he died the ship would still crash into the Earth. At least, that had been his plan. 

“Owen, go back to the engine room. You should be able to manually activate them. I can pilot us away from the planet.” Jack ordered as he pulled away a hatch underneath the destroyed panel to reach the mess of wires and boards underneath.

“No pressure then.” He replied, sprinting back to the engine room. In that moment he wished Tosh was there. She would have known how this all worked the second she walked in. Owen had to actually think about it. There had to be another control panel in here somewhere. On the side of one of the main column like structures sat what looked like a black mirror. He pressed his hand against it and it flickered. At the top of the screen symbols flashed. He tapped it again, hoping it was a yes or no option. The engines hummed before faltering. They were old and had been overworked. It was no wonder that they had trouble starting. 

“Come on you old bastards, work with me here!” He growled, setting the startup sequence off again. The engines sputtered and failed. This wasn’t going to work. Ok, direct method. 

He grabbed the top of a maintenance panel and pulled it away, revealing the mass of wires underneath. The engines needed a kick start and the power to the screen had to be coming from somewhere. Closing his eyes he could hear a humming from another column. Opening the maintenance hatch showed what looked like a large battery. He unplugged all the wires from it and pulled over the ones from the other column. Separating any of them that lead to a screen or panel he was left with a large bundle of wires that lead down to a plug. The battery didn’t have an exact socket but it had one bigger. He jammed the plug into the battery and the engines roared to life. Power returned to the ship and Owen was thrown to the floor with a jolt as the ship pulled up from its trajectory towards the Earth. 

Jack was running on adrenaline as the ship sparked to life. This was going to be a bumpy ride. He closed the light blocking surround, large panels clunking back into place, then engaged the steering to pull the ship up and direct it on a collision course with the sun. He bounded back to the engine room as Owen clambered to his feet. 

“Time to go.”

“What did you do?”

“We’re currently on the way to a close encounter with a star and I don’t ever want to be so close to that.”

Owen laughed. “Let’s get back to solid ground.”

Golden light filled the air before the grey walls of the doomed ship were replaced by the familiar sights of the hub. 

“You did it.” Gwen beamed, readings scrolling down her computer screen. 

Jack laughed. “You ever doubted me?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” 

“Not to interrupt the celebration but Elise needs her vortex manipulator back.” Said Ianto, pointing over at the figure laid out on the sofa. Jack rushed over, seeing how she was slightly curled up and shivering, hands wrapped around a bottle of water. 

“Looks like it didn’t do as much as I’d hoped.” He said softly, trading their vortex manipulators back. “If it makes you feel any better you could always set it into the back of your metal wrist now if you want. I don’t think you can be without it.”

She smiled weakly, not opening her eyes. “Yaaaay.” She croaked with as much enthusiasm as her state would allow. 

“You can sleep it off for now.” He chuckled. “Now, everyone else, we have a time leak to deal with.” 

“Should we call off the evacuation?” Asked Gwen. 

“No. It’s better that no one’s around with a large time leak. It does mean that a certain little lady gets to go home. Gwen, why don’t you take them home and I’ll keep you informed if we go out to investigate.” 

Rhys clipped the buckle of the car seat, double checking Anwen was secure. 

“I’m surprised you and Jack were able to be in the same room for so long.” Gwen said from the drivers seat. 

“Yea… Well, maybe I judged him a bit too quickly.”

“What made you change your mind?”

“Just understanding him a bit more I suppose.”

“I’m glad someone does.” She chuckled. “For as bad as all this is I’m thankful if it breaks the tension between you two.”

“Can you blame me? I worry with all the time you spend at work and it’s more than a little bit his fault.”

“I thought you’d turned over a new leaf.”

“I said I understood. I still don’t have to like it.” 

The nondescript box sat in the centre of the road. It was large enough to have contained a fridge but had no markings. The only strange thing about it was its location and the tarmac around it that looked as if it hadn’t been maintained in decades, even though it had only been laid a week before. The traffic lights still continued their usual dance, even without a single car there for them to signal, but one of them was out of sync. It moved at half speed. Further out a pigeon hung frozen in midair, its wings outstretched. 

“The leak is definitely emanating from that box.” Said Tosh, carefully avoiding the frozen bird. 

Owen stood by one of the traffic lights, looking up from a dandelion that looked more like a tree than a single flowering plant and would morph through its floral stages every minute or so. “How did it even get here? If whatever’s inside is leaking why leave it in the middle of the road?” 

“Maybe because it’s leaking?”

“If it’s important enough to do all this then you’re not going to keep it in a flimsy cardboard box.”

“Just because it looks like a cardboard box doesn’t necessarily mean it is one.” She circled around the box, staring intently at the device clutched in her hand.

Jack approached the front of the box. “Is it safe enough to move?”

“I don’t even know if it’s safe to be this close to it. These readings are fluctuating so violently that I’m wondering if they’re accurate.”

Ianto returned from cordoning off the final road, just in case there were people who had refused to evacuate still around. “I might have to widen the perimeter. One of the shops up there is starting to crumble from neglect and i know it wasn’t like that last week.” He stopped and looked carefully at the box. “Was that side always open?”

“Open?” 

They all moved round to the side Ianto was looking at and one of the boxes flaps was open, the smell of burnt electronics wafting from inside. Through the gap a room was visible. 

Tosh looked at Jack and back to the box. “Is this a…”

“A tardis.” The captain finished her statement, pulling the box the rest of the way open. “This shouldn’t be possible.”

“The Doctor can’t be the only one to own one of these.”

“That’s the thing, he is. All the others are gone.”

“But there’s nothing else this could be.”

“I know.” He took a step inside, surveying the damaged control room. “Wait outside. We don’t know what else is in here.” 

A Light filled the room, pushing Jack backwards a few steps. He expected some kind of aggressor but the place was still empty. The tardis whined, still having small sparks of life left in her. 

“You opened the door to us. What happened here?” He called out. 

The tardis whined again in reply, almost crying out for help. It was dying. Lost and alone. He could feel the crushing pain in was trying to suppress. 

“I’m sorry.” He said softly, resting a hand on the damaged controls.

A small voice came from the other side of the central column. “I didn’t mean to land here. Something pulled me down.”

“The rift. How can I help you?”

“It’s too late… I’m sorry. I can’t hold myself together much longer… I was…”

“Scared. It’s ok.”

“No… I can’t stop it… Run… Escape… Please.” 

“From wha-”

His words were cut short by a bright light then a sudden blackness and silence. 

Elise almost fell off the sofa as she moved to grab her phone. “Hello?”

“Is everyone still there?” Asked Gwen.

“What? No. They left a while ago I think.”

“I’ve been trying to contact them but I can’t even get a connection.”

“Ok. I’ll check it out. I’ll send you the address and if I haven’t called back in an hour then something’s really gone to shit.”

“You want me to wait?”

“Better than both of us getting captured or something.”

“I suppose. I just hope it’s something blocking communication.”

“You and me both.” She hung up then texted the address. She knew where it was and as there was no one in the city she decided to throw caution to the wind. She concentrated on the image of the place and space jumped. She could see the box and three figures collapsed on the ground in front of it. 

“No, no, no.” She gasped, sprinting over and skidding to the floor, grazed knees be damned. Tosh had fallen on her back and stared glassy eyed to the sky. No pulse. The air left Elises lungs. “Please, no. Tosh, wake up. Please wake up.” She begged, hyperventilating. Turning to Owen, he’d fallen on his side and stared blankly, no signs of life. Elises heart pounded in her chest as she reached over with a shaking hand. No pulse. Finally, vision blurred with tears and lungs aching, she crawled over to Ianto. His eyes were closed but he too had no pulse. She let out a bestial scream. Why wasn’t she shifting back in time? Why wasn’t her power kicking in like it should? Where was Jack? She needed someone to talk her down, tell her everything would be ok. Past the flimsy cardboard door Jack was crumpled against a wall that couldn’t possibly have been contained in the box. She rushed over and shook him.

“Jack! Come on! You can’t be dead!” Her hysterical crying was punctuated with coughing. “Please. I do stupid things when I’m scared. They… They’re dead and I can’t… I can’t do this alone… How can I tell Gwen? … How can I… Please.” She sobbed, tears dripping down onto his shirt. 

“I’m sorry. I told him to run.” A small voice said from behind her. She turned, making out a semi transparent figure standing at maybe 4’2” max. 

Elise could barely catch her breath. “Why?!”

“I didn’t mean to hurt them.”

“Let me go back and stop this. It has to be you stopping me. Please!”

“I can’t. I-”

“Please. I’ll give you whatever you want. Take me, not them!”

“I’m dying and-” 

“If I help you will you bring them back?” She asked in pure desperation. 

The figure knelt in front of the shaking woman. “I can maybe reverse the damage but that will use up all I have left, but my death could do irreparable damage to this planet.”

“I… I could maybe send you through the rift… Send you somewhere you couldn’t damage anything.”

“I don’t know what it could do to them.”

“I… Listen, I’m weak and stupid and I need them. I try not to be selfish but… I can’t face forever alone… I saw what that could do… I… I can’t…” She sobbed, arms wrapped around herself. “I’m not strong enough.” 

“You need to move him outside.”

Elise scrambled over to Jack, pulling his arm over her shoulder and slowly dragging him out, falling every few steps under his dead weight and her weakness from her desperate state. The small figure followed, standing in the doorway. 

“You must send me away or all your tears won’t prevent your destruction.” The figure said matter of factly before fading into sparks of golden light. Warm, bright, energy flowed out of the doors and over the land surrounding the box. Elise just had to hope it had worked as she took off her vortex manipulator, the light feeling like it was burning through her. She could feel the rift and manipulated it to pull the dying tardis through and towards a secondary point that resided in the centre of a red giant. 

Ianto opened his eyes to see Jack sitting on the tarmac next to him. He felt like he’d been hit by a truck. He pushed himself up.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Jack said, looking disorientated. “Are you ok?”

“Sore but in one piece I think.” 

Tosh sat up with a start, reaching out and taking Owens hand. “Are you alright?”

Owen nodded. “Did I get drunk? Why am I waking up on the floor and why are you on the floor too?”

“The box. There was a light and then… I don’t remember.”

He sat up and looked around, seeing someone curled up in a crater where the box had once been. A glint of metal pulled him back to reality fully and he lurched forward to confirm who he thought he was seeing. Elise was breathing softly, her hands clutched around the vortex manipulator, face red and streaked with tears. He slid down next to her. 

“Eli? How did you get here? What happened?” He asked, pulling her into his arms to get her out of the perfectly cut basin. Jack lent down to help pull them both up. 

“Tosh. What are the readings like? Is the leak gone?” The captain wrapped the vortex manipulator around the unconscious womans wrist, not knowing why she took it off.

Toshiko looked around, the monitoring device having been thrown a few feet away. She grabbed it and rushed back, wanting to keep one eye on Elise. “The leak’s gone. No trace, but the whole area is covered in rift energy.”

“Let’s get her back to the hub then. Let’s hope she remembers what happened better than we do.”

Elise whimpered as she awoke, every muscle in her body screaming.

“Eli? You back with us?” Owen smiled down at her, the concern he held showing in his eyes. For a moment she just stared back before she reached up and pulled him into a tight embrace, tears returning, clutching onto him for dear life.

He hugged her back. “Hey, what’s all this about?” He asked softly.

She couldn’t speak, just wanting to be sure he was alive. After a while her sobs subsided enough for her to get a few words out. “Is everyone ok?”

“Yea, a bit confused but fine. What happened?”

“I- I thought you were all dead. You were all just on the ground and… I checked for a pulse… Jack wouldn’t even wake up.” She gasped between each statement, finding it hard to not fall apart. 

He rested a hand on her cheek, brushing away her tears. “Listen, you know that can’t be real, right? It’s Jack. He always comes back. And I’m standing right here.”

“I know… But it felt so real… I-”

“Eli. Breathe.” 

She slowed her breathing, finally calming down a little. “Can I just see that everyone’s ok?”

“If it makes you feel better. Just wait here, you’ll fall if you try and get up.” He didn’t have chance to move before Toshiko rushed in, having been listening. Granted, it was hard not to hear Eli crying. He moved so Tosh and Elise could have a moment while he went to tell Jack what was going on.

Jack looked up as Owen entered his office and closed the door. “Is she ok?”

“She will be. Physically she’s just over exerted herself. Mentally, she’s convinced we were all dead, including you.”

“I don’t know how or why a tardis would do that to her.”

“Not a clue. She wants to see that you’re alive with her own eyes though.”

“I’ll be down in a minute.”

Owen nodded and headed back, leaving Jack to himself. He studied the damage to the back of his boots where he’d been dragged out of the tardis and his shirt where her tears had soaked in. He couldn’t believe her recollection of the scene when she got there but something must have been drastically wrong. The rift didn’t help them without a push and Elise had little control over her rift manipulation, only activating it under huge pressure. She had to have been the one to send the tardis through. He knew he should just be thankful that his team were all alive but he had the worst gut feeling that he couldn’t push away. 


End file.
